Free What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) by Gemma Hart Page A

wrote.”
    I could see his shoulders stiffen momentarily before relaxing back into his casual pose. “Did you?” he said, looking back out at the darkness. “I’m going to bet that the number didn’t work.”
    “No, it didn’t,” I said.
    He nodded. “That’s my civilian number. It’s only active when I’m in town. Literally right after I put you in your friend’s car, I got the call for this mission. That number was deactivated before you probably even woke up the next morning.”
    “Oh I see,” I said, finding nothing else to really say. I had hoped that he had taken the hint. You had tossed the ball into my court and I had responded. Deactivated phone or not, I was pretty sure it was his turn now. But when he said nothing further, I looked down at my feet, giving a small pebble a kick. Clearly, he was going to let the ball just roll right out the court.
    “Maybe it was for the best,” he said suddenly, jerking me out of my reverie.
    “What?” I said, confused.
    “Maybe it was for the best that your call didn’t go through,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on some point in the dark horizon.
    I stared at him. “If you thought that, then why would you have written on my arm at all?”
    He looked down at his lap with a rueful huff of a laugh. “Right,” he said. “Well, maybe that night I had thought differently. But now…after getting this mission….”
    “I thought absence was supposed to make the heart grow fonder,” I said, taking my turn to tease.
    Cooper snorted in appreciation. “Well, it does. But there’s also another saying,” he said. He looked up, pinning me with impenetrably dark eyes, made darker still by the night.
    “‘Ignorance is bliss,’” he said flatly.
    I bristled a bit, offended. “Are you calling me ignorant?” I said, my voice taking on a clipped tone.
    Cooper didn’t blink. “Yes,” he said without rancor. “Most people are when it comes to what my occupation entails. Even I get surprised sometimes by what I deal with.”
    “And what is it you deal with?” I asked a little breathlessly. I couldn’t move out from under his gaze if a bulldozer were to run me over.
    “Death,” he said promptly. “Torture. Kidnap. Murder. Corruption.” His face twisted for a moment before adding, “Betrayal.”
    “Easy Team is called only when absolutely necessary. So you can imagine how many levels of shit the situation must be under for me to be involved,” he said. “That means we see the absolute most base, primal form of men. I’ve seen true bravery but I’ve also seen the lowest, dirtiest fucking point a human could sink to. This is not a life for everyone. It can be a difficult life even for the ones that lead it. And it is definitely not a life for a partner. A significant other.”
    He shook his head, looking back down at his lap. There was an expression of sardonic resignation on his face. “I’ve shot more men than you’ve shaken hands with,” he said. “Lead a life like that and you’re bound to make enemies. Both kinds of enemies—the ones in the real world and the ones in your head.” He shook his head again, as if a little depressed by the truth of his own argument.
    “No,” he said. “You said it yourself—I’m a mercenary. I go where there’s a contract.” He gave me a humorless smile. “No contract, no me. That night in L.A. was the anomaly.” He gestured to the dead expanse before him. “This is my normal.”
    I stared at him, speechless. Colliding feelings of confusion, embarrassment, desire, anger, pity, and fear roiled within me. I hardly had time to organize any of these emotions before Cooper suddenly rose to his feet, startling me.
    He stretched out his hand. “It’s getting late,” he said. “I can walk you back.”
    Without thinking, I put my hand in his, watching it get swallowed up in his large and capable grip.
    What was that you said, Em? About him losing that mysterious/stranger vibe? I sighed as we crossed the